She was born when Queen Victoria was on the throne, saw the dawn of the motor car and the internet, and survived two world wars.
But Misao Okawa, the world’s oldest person until her death in 2015, had a remarkably simple formula for living a long and healthy life: eating sushi, sleeping well and relaxing.
The Japanese supercentenarian, who was born on March 5, 1898, celebrated her 117th birthday with her family at a nursing home in Osaka, where she had lived since 1997.
She looked radiant in a pink kimono with cherry blossom prints and a pink daisy pin in her hair. And she enjoyed a slice of cake with a smile.
Asked for the secret to her longevity, Okawa joked: ‘I wonder about that too.’
She had previously revealed that she loved sushi and udon noodles, and made sure she slept for eight hours every night.
The 117-year-old ate three large meals a day and never skipped breakfast, according to Guinness World Records.
The nursing home’s manager Tomohito Okada said her favourite dish was sushi, especially mackerel on vinegar-steamed rice.
Okawa said she was ‘very happy’ to be 117, but admitted that her time ‘seemed rather short’ when Osaka government official Takehiro Ogura asked how she felt about living for so long.
Ogura gave Okawa a big bouquet of flowers to mark the occasion.
In addition to holding the title of ‘world’s oldest person’, Okawa was also one of few people who can call themselves a supercentenarian, a person 110-years-older or older.
‘Reaching this age is an exceptional achievement, especially given the average life span for women in Japan is just under 85.9 years,’ Guinness World Records said.
‘Misao has lived across three centuries,’ Guinness World Records added, ‘which have seen immense social and technological advances including the advent of motor vehicles, flight, mobile telephones, social networking sites and six UK monarchs, four emperors of Japan and 20 US presidents.’
Okawa married her husband Yukio in 1919, and they had two daughters and one son. She now has four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Her husband died in 1931.
She also outlived three of her four children, including her son Hiroshi who died at the age of 90 in 2013.
Despite the tragedies in her life, Okawa remained positive and relaxed. She once said: ‘Eat and sleep and you will live a long time. You have to learn to relax.’
Japan has the most centenarians in the world. According to the Japan Times, in 2018, the country had 69,785 people over 100, nearly 90% of whom were women.
According to Guinness World Records, the oldest person ever was Jeanne Louise Calment, who died at age 122 in 1997.